Posts Tagged ‘Tasting’

The tasting of the titans“>titans met again for a tasting a few weeks back and this time we smoked true Cuban vintage cigar: a La Gloria Cubana Medaille d’Or No. 2 from 1985 (or even older). And look at the first picture below! Look at that varnished 8-9-8 box full of those gems. I mean, what’s not to like? Right?!? A gorgeous vitolla in a equally gorgeous box. And yes, we smoked a stick each. 🙂

The Gloria Cubanas Medaille d’Or series are often overlooked, I feel. Well, maybe even the whole brand? But make no mistakes, the varnished boxes for the Medaille D’Or cigars are a very clear and big sign: This is top dog material. Both on the inside and the outside. Apart from that, all the four cigars out of the series have very, very elegant shapes and are even nicer smokes. And so was this stick! I guess I can give it away right now, we all felt that this was one of the BEST cigars that we have smoked during a titan’s tasting. And we did smoke some really nice and rare ones. At least I like to think so.

Admittedly I got something of a “dud” – the almost proverbial dog rocket – out of the bunch. I am a bit of a magnet for those so no surprise there. Mine wouldn’t open up as much as the others and for some strange reasons the smoke dried out my palate quiet a bit. Never the less it was complex with fruity and leathery notes and it developed quite nicely over the one hour and 40 minutes I smoked it. Reading the tasting sheets from my fellows (see below) they were even more pleased with it. But again I was left in awe that a cigar that was at least 30 years old was still so expressive and present. Nothing like “doing archeology” and “guessing what it once was”. Can this be attributed to cigars or is it the varnished boxes and the waxed paper that keep those babies so tightly together that they age better? What do you think?

I am left again to thank the titans for the spectacular cigars, the nice company and their time and of course many thanks to the Portmann’s for their generosity and hospitality. We should meet more often! And not just because that would lead to more posts on this blog here. 🙂

For more impressions, details and description of the cigars please see the individual tasting sheets:

This tasting of the titans“>tasting of the titans (TotT) smoking a Saint Louis Rey Double Coronas happened already back in August. And yes, I admit that I was a lazy bastard and it took me ages to put this up. I guess in internet-years, where everything goes so fast, it was more like geological ages! 🙂 But here it is. A tasting of one of my favorite Double Coronas: The SLR Double Coronas. And this specific specimens were boxed was boxed in 2002!

It was brought to us in a trusty cigar caddy, as the 50 cabinet box the cigars usually reside in simply was to big to travel. 🙂 Already the looks of those cigars without bands. Just heavenly! And doing a little bit of research before the actual tasting event, thanks to Min Ron Nee, I knew that those cigars must have been amongst the first to be boxed as Double Coronas. Well almost the first but close I would say. Prior to that there were boxed as Prominentes, but that is an entirely different post, maybe. 😉 So after a nice chat and smoke in Mr. Portmanns lounge and a short dinner consisting out of the tasty burgers and fries coming from the diner next door, we went down to business!

The cigar had an irresistible and yet very strong smell. Surprisingly expressive for a stick that was about to be lying and aging in a cabinet box for almost 14 years. And from here on I can lift the tension and make it short – or shall I say “shortish”. The cigar was really nice and I enjoyed it a lot. To my surprise the – for me – typical notes of sour dough and ginger bread candy only revealed themselves in the second and third part of the cigar. So they were definitely there but not as early and maybe not as pronounced as I remembered them. To be fair I have not smoked a Saint Luis Rey DC for a while and certainly not such an old one. If I recall correctly most of the ones I smoked in the last years were from 2005 and 2006. If you have SLR DC’s in your humidor, you can be glad. They certainly have the potential to age more and develop into a very elegant smoke in the future.

It is all to seldom that we meet and I always enjoy myself very much. Escaping every day routine and smoke a great cigar in even better company. I am left again to thank the titans for the spectacular cigars, the nice company and their time and of course many thanks to the Portmann’s for their generosity and hospitality.

For more impressions, details and description of the cigars please see the individual tasting sheets:

It has been a while since my last post. One of the reasons is that I have been on a weekend with some friends and guess what! We smoked some fine cigars. 🙂

One particular cigar on this occasion was the Romeo y Julietta Robusto Edicion Limitada 2001. And what a treat this was! Not only did we smoke some very fine specimens if not my fellow smokers were all so kind to fill out a tasting sheet. 🙂

The Robusto had a nice box press and a nice dark and oily wrapper just as one would expect it from an Edicion Limitida. Upon lighting my cigar was immediatelly present but what struck me most (throughout the smoke) was the sensation of salt on my lips. Very interessting while not unpleasant. Notes of leather, wood and spices where present and the nice and incremental development made this complex, full bodied smoke an experience to remember. And I must say that this cigar together with one or the other nice EL I smoked lately, somehow restored my confidence in this “limited thing”. There are certainly some excellent Edicion Limitadas out there worth to be collected and enjoyed in their own right!

My friends all liked the cigar too. You can see that in the tasting sheets below as they rated it really high. Another indicator for me was that we initially planned to do a Brandy tasting at the same time but we quickly came to the agreement to wait with that as the cigar certainly deserved to be enjoyed alone so one could focus and enjoy it properly.

On a personal side note: Good to pass out Els that are no fakes. And whether the Partymides were fake or simply stored bad I am a bit more relaxed today since I am certain that this did not happen in my humidor as all the cigars that were stored the same way were flawless so far… 🙂

Im left to say thanks to all my fellow smokers. It was a rememberable time with you and this 12 year old Romeo really kicked some butts. 🙂

For more impressions, details and description of the cigars please see the individual tasting sheets: